Best Mitt for a small young player

I have to admit this is somewhat off topic because I am asking this question regarding my 8U son and not my 10U DD, but I figure some of you out there probably have sons as well as daughters. My son is not particularly big for his age. He is currently playing 8U Coach pitch travel ball. He is really I interested in catching so I got him a set of 6-8 size All Star Catching gear and it fits him really well. I also started him in lessons. I know that might seem kind of silly but I simply don't have the expertise to teach him what he needs to know. I figure if I start him now he will be ready to go once kid pitch starts.

The question I have is what size and brand of catchers mitt should I get him? I have taken a look at the Mizuno Prospect 31.5 and 32.5". My first observation is they look extremely similar in size yet much smaller than an old 32.5" Rawlings mitt someone gave me. The big difference I note is the 32.5" mitt seems to have thicker padding. Both of these mitts (and for that matter all catcher mitts) seem to have a really small pocket to me. It just seems like the ball would pop out really easily. I have even though about buying him a youth fast pitch mitt because they seem to have bigger pockets. If anyone has any thoughts or ideas please let me know.

I apologise again about asking a baseball question in a softball forum, but this forum has been helpful to me before with my DD and I can't seem to find anything equivalent on the baseball side.

for what it's worth, my DD like her Mizuno prospect fastpitch mitt until she started catching faster girls (say 50+), then she got too many thumb stingers and we had to upgrade. the v notch made it easy to close. still have it if interested, it has the larger pocket (we also knew it would not work with 12s, but but Ok with 11s)

The prospect is a good little glove. It breaks in easily and provides enough protecting for a few years past U10

625ender said:

The prospect is a good little glove. It breaks in easily and provides enough protecting for a few years past U10

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this highly depends on the pitchers you are catching. was not sufficient for my DD in her second year of 10u, pitchers hitting 55+, couple of thumb stingers, we had to get her an inner glove until we could get her new mitt and get it broken in (CMW3000)

bmakj said:

this highly depends on the pitchers you are catching. was not sufficient for my DD in her second year of 10u, pitchers hitting 55+, couple of thumb stingers, we had to get her an inner glove until we could get her new mitt and get it broken in (CMW3000)

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He's talking about a baseball mitt not fastpitch. Pitchers at 10U hitting 55+ ya'll need a new radar gun

DS used the mizuno at that age because there is basically no breakin. But after about a season they need to be replaced because ghe shell leather starts to give. Once his hand gets strong enough you can move up to the gamer elite which isnt too bad on break in. We would get a year out of those in 11's and 12's before they were getting too soft.

I got him a 31.5" Mizuno Prospect and it seems to be working well.

Hopefully in a year or so I can have him catch my DD for lessons and bullpens, but I think I will need to get him a fast pitch mitt.

My son plays some catcher and is just finishing up his last year of 10U. He didn't play catcher during coach pitch. As a matter of fact, in coach pitch games, I'd use a regular glove, because his most important catch will be at the plate when someone is throwing it home. Lessons of course is another story. That being said, my daughter started breaking in her catchers glove her last season of coach pitch, but the softball catcher's mitt is built a bit differently than the baseball catcher's mitt.

As for mitts, I made a mistake early on. He was ho-hum on playing catcher, and I didn't know much about it, so we went down to "big box sporting goods store" and bought a cheap All-Star mitt. The company has a good reputation, the mitt was practically game ready, and it was cheap. Big mistake on my part. As soon as he got to fall ball, his thumb got hit/hurt/dislocated, and it has been a re-occurring problem since. We've tried the evo-shield thumb guard and we're currently using the team defender glove to protect his thumb. Once his thumb got hurt, we switched to an Akadema 98 glove that he's been using ever since. It was a good size at the time(it's really made for small hands), and offered more thumb protection. The pocket is not great, but it's been used by every kid that plays catcher on his rec teams. The "team" glove is always a piece of junk. Currently, he only plays catcher as a backup position in large part because of the thumb. Pain can be a dissuading motivator. Mostly he plays third base and pitches these days. I wish I had looked harder at the "one step up" Mizuno when we started or a Vinci Fortus. Boys definitely throw harder and the force of the baseball is delivered in a much more compact area than a softball. If my son were to decide to make catcher his primary position, I'd be looking at a more expensive solution, especially since he's moving up to 12U this spring.

chardrok said:

As for mitts, I made a mistake early on. He was ho-hum on playing catcher, and I didn't know much about it, so we went down to "big box sporting goods store" and bought a cheap All-Star mitt. The company has a good reputation, the mitt was practically game ready, and it was cheap. Big mistake on my part. As soon as he got to fall ball, his thumb got hit/hurt/dislocated, and it has been a re-occurring problem since.

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(Edited to add) - didn’t realize the rest of my post didn’t make it - hoping no one read the above emoji as sarcasm. My reaction was b/c I had also just bought a “cheap All-Star mitt” for my daughter - I’m hoping it doesn’t lead to the same thumb issues I’ve experienced.

Check out Bradley gloves. Not familiar with their catchers gloves, but the fielders gloves are great. Purpose built for kids hands. DD loves hers. Many others on here like theirs too.

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